Daniel Drezner doesn't buy the "flypaper theory" for Iraq. The idea that it was conquered to provide a place to soak up terrorists from other countries. -#

``The thing is, I don't buy it. In terms of the broader neocon vision of transforming the Middle East, Iraq needs to be an oasis of stability, not a grand opening for Terrorists 'R Us. [But what about Josh Marshall's theory that the neocons want greater instability as an excuse for greater U.S. intervention?--ed. If Marshall was correct, then the last thing the administration would want if for destabilizing elements to leave their home countries and go to Iraq. That would make it harder, not easier, to justify U.S. incursions elsewhere in the region.]''

From Loosely Coupled is the idea of "Saying what You mean" when it comes to databases.#

`` As I strolled home later on, I started wondering how we'd managed to get to a point where it's commonplace knowledge that, if you want to add some extra information to a computer database, you deliberately pick a completely meaningless token? [...] The trouble is, we human beings are hooked on symbols. We like puzzles. Whereas saying precisely what we mean is hard work, and not much fun. Our normal mode of conversation with each other is to blurt out the first words that come into our head and resolve any ambiguities as they arise. We're naturally programmed to pick any convenient symbol (as I did when I initially suggested "pink, yellow and green") and then pin down its meaning later on. ''

The Yeti writes about girls who are "spoiled [princesses]" - #

``As for special treatment, think of it like this. When I buy a CD, it's mine. At first, I want to avoid scratches, but once I've heard it through, even if I really like it, I'll probably end up not taking great care of it. Do you know why? Because they're cheap, and I can always go buy another.

When I buy a couch, I try to take care of it, because I know I want it around for a long time. I may spill on it, but it has value to me. Over time, I invest emotional value in the couch, because it is not easily replaced.

So the question you have to ask yourself. What makes you different than any other woman on-line? Or in real life? What is it that makes you different? As for online dating, the question comes up of whether or not you're looking to buy a couch when you're shopping in a cd store.''

I love The Knowledge for Thirst, there's a new one today...#

``if I sample two beverages, and I like neither, but then in my total brilliance I alter their recipes and totally love them, what does that make me? I know: a god. I see the words forming on your glistening lips. You are so sexy when you deify me. But listen, I'm serious about this. Put your clothes back on and Tivo the inexorability of our lovemaking for but a moment, dear heart, while I unfold this tale of two beverages having their wonderfulness unleashed.

I haven't been on the east coast for a while, so when I saw that my beloved Fresh Samantha no longer existed, having been purchased and repackaged by the Odwalla corporation, I was filled with a tearful sense of You Can Never Go Home. Like remember the first time I got out of prison and rushed to the newsstand to buy the latest issue of Vogue and was like "...Wait, brown is the new black???" and you just nodded your head sadly and wondered if I'd ever be able to find my way in this crazy mixed-up world? Same type of thing.

I selected Strawberry Lemonade Quencher and Summertime Lime Quencher for my mouthing. [Note: we need a word for "perusal" that implies drinking and tasting rather than reading and considering. Ideas?]. How fucking refreshing do those flavors sound, I ask you. So how shocked was I when began drinking and suddenly someone was stabbing holes in my tongue with a strawberry lemonade scimitar. ''

Accordion Boy includes a quote from Neal Stephenson in a recent post...#

``(Neal Stephenson is so very on the mark when he has one of his characters in Cryptonomicon say "Filipinos are a warm, gentle, caring, giving people, which is a good thing since so many of them carry concealed weapons.") ''

It's funny. Laugh.

Al3x gave up on big concerts years ago...#

``As good as the band was, it reminded me why I gave up on big concerts. I was most excited by the final five minutes, during which Johnny twisted Thom's voice and the final notes of "Everything In Its Right Place" with a Korg Kaoss Pad, laying the warped sounds over a thumping beat. I'm guessing that was the extent of experimentation/improvisation in their set, and in that respect I don't feel like I missed much. Of course I'm rationalizing. But when the gods are crystal clear on fucking you over (Radiohead concert-wise), what else can you do?''

Mark points out that everything is considered harmful by technologists. It's a great list.#

Bloggus Caesari has been updated with a FAQ, one question...#

``*This sounds like my country / state! Are you playing up modern-day parallels?*

Well, If I see a similarity, I will try to make it apparent, but I'm not going to exaggerate anything going on in Roman history to make it sound more like our present day. Most of these similarities are the usual cases of history repeating itself. In particular, signs of an ailing Republic have special relevance today.

But why don't I just out and say it: George W. Bush makes a lousy Caesar. Imagine if Howard Dean became president, then had his enemies arrested, then invaded and conquered a continent, then started a civil war in the US and had himself made president for life. All the while making life better for the average Roman.''

The Volokh Conspiracy has a link to a book that attempts to explain the gender wage gap...#

``The bottom line of this book: women are less likely to negotiate than are men, and less likely to enjoy it. Krueger's summary notes: "Men see situations as adaptable; women see them as unchangeable. Men use metaphors like "winning a ballgame" to describe negotiations; women use metaphors like "going to the dentist." Women are "more likely than men to think that simply working hard and doing a good job will earn them success and advancement.""

Also, get this: "[The authors] speculate that much if not all of the male-female gap in earnings can be explained by women's aversion to negotiating." (Please don't flame me on this one, I am reporting someone else's research, not my own conclusions.)''

Kudzu is not overstated -#

``Kudzu is a plant that was promoted in the 1930's for erosion control, but has since grown out of control. Drive around South Carolina or Georgia and you will quickly realized that Kudzu is slowly devouring the land. Soon everything here will be covered by a warm, green blanket of this leafy vine. With the capability to grow one foot per day, it doesn't take long to take over.''

Jeff Jarvis writes about how the FCC stopped Howard Stern from interviewing Arnold...#

``But the voters won't get to hear what Schwarzenegger has to say under questioning because of the equal time rule. Stern's dimwitted station manager and wimpy lawyers said that if he talked to Arnold, he'd have to talk to all 130 candidates. Stern begged them to fight and get an FCC exemption but they didn't.

This is wrong on so many levels. Stern's show is facing this fight because he's not considered news (hey, there's just as much fluff on three hours of the Today Show -- and Stern makes a helluva lot more news than any other show) and also because the FCC has a hard-on for him. The FCC -- the government -- should not be in a position to determine what is news and what isn't and what we can and cannot hear. As a result of this rule and its unfair enforcement, it's the electorate that suffers. Instead of assuring that we are better informed, we are less informed. That is the government infringing free speech and the free market of ideas. That is wrong. ''

The Yeti wonders how much money it would take for you to do things you didn't want to...#

``What would you do for money? What wouldn't you do?

You'll slave away at your job (or at least show up), you'll treat people bad for their customer service, deny them raises to keep your own pocket full, and fire them without a lot of sympathy, but you wouldn't sleep with someone for money?

Can you divorce the good you can do with money from the action to get it? Are you then being selfish?

[...]

This, really, is the basis of the attraction of the reality shows. The selection is a bit off, as the type of person who plays well on the screen might not be your average individual. And the camera does change who you are. But you really have to wonder - what would you do or not do for money?''

Joy is a girl. She's also a geek. Discuss amongst yourselves...#

``This is one of my pet interests, as I'm in a field where you don't meet many people who are like yourself. It's not easy to enter into a room and quite likely you're the only female. It even gets better when you're the only female and you have to *gasp* stand up in front of the room to speak. It's not that I think the gender disparity is caused by discrimination per se, but by a lack of interest or better yet, a lack of expectations. It's ok to use a computer, but to actually manipulate it is unusual to say the least. You should hear the comments that I hear from women in class when I talk about doing something like opening the case of a computer. And what's even more ironic about this situation is that on the average, technology jobs pay better than so called traditionally female jobs.''

James Robertson writes about another Smalltalker's experience with Java and exceptions.#

Tony Pierce corrects SWAT...#

``speaking of swat, did you guys see that dumb movie? many many la subway errors in that movie. the worst being that they use the Same subway station for all the shots. its the wilshire / western station that i use every day. in one scene they run down there and say "oh, hes at the Figueroa station! Lets get him. And they miss the subway and have to drive to the Figueroa station and we see them run down into that station and they look around and they say, damn, hes not here. Meanwhile right behind them it says "Wilshire / Western". one of the things about the subway stations in LA, each has a different theme. The Wilshire / Western theme is the art deco green and silver style that can be found at the historic Wiltern Theatre that can be found at the corner of WILshire and wesTERN. the same Wiltern that is prominently displayed in the background as the SWAT guys climb out of what we are told is the Figueroa station. dumbasses.''

I read In the Beginning... was the Command Line by Neal Stephenson on Monday. It was fairly interesting.#

My main complaint about the book is that it starts off with a purpose, he says something interesting things that I've heard before and though were intelligent but he doesn't really offer much more to the reader.#

His sense of humour and perspective on some of the things he talks about is interesting so I quote him.#

On page 15, he is talking about how computer represent information, how everything is just strings of bytes...#

``These strings of bytes are commonly called files or (some what more hiply) streams. *They are to telegrams what modern humans are to Cro-Magnon man, which is to say, the same thing under a different name.*

On page 26, he writes about how strange it is to buy computer software.#

``A string of ones and zeroes was not a difficult thing for Bill Gates to distribute, once he'd thought of the idea. The hard part was selling it - reassuring customers that they were actually getting something in return for their money.''

On page 47, he talks about a trip to Disney World and living through a facsimile of the real world...#

``It was very crowded; we shuffled rather than walked. Directly in front of me was a man with a camcorder. It was one of the new breed of camcorders where instead of peering through a viewfinder you gaze at a flat-panel color screen about the size of a playing card, which televises live coverage of whatever the camcorder is seeing. he was holding the appliance close to his face, so that it obstructed his view. *Rather than go see a real small town for free, he had paid money to see a pretend one, and rather than see it with the naked eye, he was watching it on television.*''

On page 71, he writes about the clarity and permanence of the written word that is lost in GUIs...#

``There are very few fixed assumptions in my line of work, but one of them is that once you have written a word, it is written, and cannot be unwritten. The ink stains the paper, the chisel cuts the stone, the stylus marks the clay, and something has irrevocably happened. *(My brother-in-law is a theologian who reads 3250-year-old cuneiform tablets - he can recognize the handwriting of particular scribes and identify them by name.)*''

On page 77, he writes about a hard drive crash that happened once, he makes a very strange comment...#

``It was completely and systematically wiped out. We went through that hard disk block by block and found disjointed fragments of countless old, discarded, forgotten files, but none of what I wanted. The metaphor shear was especially brutal that day. *It was sort of like watching the girl you've been in love with for ten years get killed in a car wreck, then attending her autopsy, and learning that underneath the clothes and makeup she was just flesh and blood.*''

On page 86, he mentions learning about UNIX...#

``Unix is hard to learn. The process of learning it is one of multiple small epiphanies. Typically you are just on the verge of inventing some necessary tool or utility *when you realize that someone else has already invented it, and built it in, and this explains some odd file or directory or command that you have noticed but never really understood before.*''

On page 87, he explains how directories are named in UNIX...#

``Note the obsessive use of abbreviations and avoidance of capital letters; this is a system invented by people to whom repetitive stress disorder is what black lung is to miners. Long names get worn down to three- or four-letter nubbins, like stones smoothed by a river''

Scoble quotes Chris Brumme writing about security at Microsoft...#

``The company performed a much publicized and hugely expensive security push. Tons of bugs were filed and fixed. More importantly, the attitude of developers, PMs, testers and management was fundamentally changed. Nobody on our team discusses new features without considering security issues, like building threat models. Security penetration testing is a fundamental part of a test plan.''

``Unfortunately, this stuff is still way too difficult. It's a simple fact that only a small percentage of developers can write thread-safe free-threaded code. And they can only do it part of the time. The state of the art for writing 100% secure code requires that same sort of super-human attention to detail. And a hacker only needs to find a single exploitable vulnerability.''

Brent Simmons on the "Prisoner's Dilemma for aggregators"...#

``Some people have said that the issue with not well-formed feeds and aggregators is a kind of prisoner's dilemma. In other words, if all aggregator developers pledged to reject not well-formed feeds, then that would be incentive for people to fix their feeds. [...] It's not our job to be syndication cops. Our software should support standards, but it should also try to work with feeds with bugs, because that's in the best interests of our users.''

Via Kasia is Jeremy Zawodny writing about dumb things he hears at his office...#

``If George Carlin visited Yahoo for a day, I bet he'd have a field day with the stuff I hear on a regular basis.

For example, there's a certain class of people who seem to believe that the only word they can use to begin a conversation is: So.

I'm not kidding you. They use the word to begin conversations and then at the beginning of every 2nd or 3rd sentence. It's like they're trying to fill some sort of bizarre quota. Given how little meaning the word has, it just bugs the hell out of me.''

A New LWN Weekly Edition is out. In the Kernel Section is stuff about MSI...#

``One target for pin-chopping engineers is interrupt lines. As a way of eliminating interrupt lines and moving further toward a "legacy free" environment, a (relatively) new PCI bus feature called "message signaled interrupts" (MSI) has been introduced. Essentially, MSI works by moving interrupts onto the data bus with the rest of the data traffic. An MSI-capable device signals an interrupt by writing a specific data value to a special address. The operating system can then trap that write and dispatch the interrupt accordingly.''

From Razib of Gene Expression is Steve Sailer interviewing the War Nerd. -#

`` Q. What are war nerds?

A. Just what it sounds like, nerds who are into war. *People like me, normal Americans, fat and alone and stuck in a stupid white-collar slave job. We get off on reading about war because we hate our lives.* I admitted all that in my first column for the eXile.ru, just so nobody'd write in trying to be Sigmund Freud about how it's all sexual frustration....

Godless at Gene Expression, writes about IQ, GDP, and what not in the Middle East. Very interesting, hard to quote though.#

Tony Pierce has a new photo-essay titled, Threats from the first black president -#

``so i would lock up people who send out computer viruses and keep them in jail for twenty years. and their lawyers would say cruel and unusual punishment and i would say that their crime is cruel and unusual and everyone would agree with me and they would rot in jail and guess what, nobody would send out bullshit viruses any more. [...] id also let people who ratted out virus senders to decide whether they wanted two million dollars, tax free, or to never have to pay taxes again for life.''

``i would have a tv show. once a week. mostly we would talk about music. people dont understand, but as ridiculous as president bush is, imagine if he went on tv and said, coldplay bores the hell out of me. or fuck limp bizkit''

``but the best thing i would do is give every kid in america guitar lessons. it would be the jimi hendrix amendment. it would say congress shalt not keep the rock from the children of america. and the doors would be broken open and out would come the guitars and every school would teach guitar and theory and music history starting at chuck berry and in twenty years *fm radio will stand for finally music*.''

Ted Leung uses Joe Marshall's criteria for a good language and looks at Object Caml. - He also notes that having a REPL is very important a language, and Java lacks that as well.#

From Slashdot is Bruce Perens with more analysis of SCO's claims. #

``In slide 20, SCO alleges that it owns essentially all of the code in Linux that has been touched at all by IBM, SGI, and other Unix licensees. These contributions constitute over 1.1 Million lines of code, 1549 files, totalling 2/3 of the new code developed between the releases of Linux 2.2 and 2.4. But how could SCO possibly own all of this code that is copyrighted by other companies and individuals? SCO's legal theory, explained in slide 6, is that the AT&T Unix license compelled all of these companies to assign to AT&T, and later SCO, all derived works that they created incorporating the Unix source code.''

An eWeek interview with Linus Torvalds - #

``Ironically, the piece of code that [SCO demonstrated this week] had already been removed in [the Linux kernel] 2.6.x—and not because of copyright issues, but because developers complained about how "ugly" it was. So not only is the code available under the BSD copyright, it had been removed in new versions of Linux even before SCO made it public.''

From Slashdot is the Matrix Revolutions trailer and an article from the BBC about which movie will be pushed for an Oscar. - Also note in that article that the Quentin Tarantino movie "Kill Bill" has been split in two parts. Neat.#

Queer Eye - #

``After the disturbing journey into the bowels of Carson's soul (translation: the zoom into his eye), it's shock and awe time. The F5 barrel into Andrew's den of inequity and "hanging out", and someone set the snark detector, because Thom is overloaded. Carson wonders if a dirty towel on the living room floor is Andrew's "dreamcatcher" (I've had the masturbatory reference explained to me already, so don't go trying to convince me it's from a Missy Elliot song). Suddenly, a high-pitched scream erupts...Jai's found Andrew's rubber stash. Yup. Poor Andrew gets to have his "snug fit" Lifestyles condoms broadcast all over basic cable. So I guess he's not keeping the cute chick by virtue of his massive johnson. Hmm...the plot thickens...''

Hah. And then the wonder of...

``We see Andrew's pie-eating contest trophy, and for a minute, I think it's the most embarassing thing that the F5 have ever dug up in a straight guy's house. But then...the porn.''

Oh my gawd...

``Carson's had enough, and it's time to deal with Andrew's dismal clothing situation. "I guess I kind of dress like a bum", Andrew admits. Carson agrees. "For days, I was like 'who's the homeless guy?'" We also learn that Carson lays his clothes out every morning, and takes a Poloraid, so as to not repeat the same look in a 30 day period. I've decided that's my high water mark for gayness. If I start doing that, shoot me with a Silver Bullet. And yes, I mean the Coors kind.''

Peter Lindberg writes about controlling your sleep cycle and waking up just in time to shut off your alarm.#

``As I intended to blog about this, I had set the alarm in my cellphone at five thirty, and decided to awake just in time to switch it off—and I didn't know what time it was when I got to bed. This morning I awoke (by myself), got up, and as I closed the bedroom door, the alarm went off in my hand, so I could just tap the Yes-button twice to switch it off. So I woke up ten seconds to five thirty, or so.''

I do this too, it's pretty neat. At some point I want to try the Uberman's Sleep Schedule - It may be useful?

Jorrit Wiersma#

``The recent spate of Windows viruses and vulnerabilities (Blaster, Sobig.F, and this one) is beginning to work on people's nerves. James Robertson vents his frustration ("your platform sucks") about webserver downtime and links to an article on ComputerWorld about how system administrators are losing trust in Microsoft products: *"Did your IT department have better things to do last week? Tough luck, huh?"* ''

Michael Feldman links a story about a new deal on eBay#

``A voodoo practitioner from Norwich is auctioning his services on eBay to help musicians gain fame by making a pact with the Devil at the crossroads. ''

From Box of Chocolates - #

``Great assessment of our Commander-in-Chief, If there is one piece you read today, this should be it.''

A quote from said assessment,

``When I look at George W. Bush, I don't see a patriot. I see a lying, psychopathic narcissist. And it pains me, it grieves me, it WOUNDS me to realize that this puts me not only in the minority… but in the "whacko fringe." ''

Discussion of the eternity of the Matrix at Matrix Essays - #

``Some people have suggested that Revolutions cannot end with the destruction of the Matrix, because the online game which will come out later will still be set in the Matrix. I do not find that reason very convincing, because if the Wachowskis really wanted Neo and crew to destroy the Matrix, they could just position the game as a prequel. But there are plenty of other reasons why Revolutions cannot destroy the Matrix. [...] Symbolically, the Matrix represents samsara. It would not make sense philosophically for samsara to be eliminated. Freedom from samsara comes from seeing it for what it really is, not from destroying it.''

Joi Ito writes about a presentation he gave to Japanese copyright experts on the Creative Commons project.#

`` Professor Iwamura asked whether "intent" was important. It seems that most of the cases, at least in Japan, were between people who were emotionally upset by violations rather than for financial reasons. If the emotional element (which is an important part of the derivative works issue) is key, isn't intent important. Professor Iwamura asked, half-jokingly, whether we would make a "unintended copying allowed" in the CC license. I do believe that intent will become more important as amateur photography and movie making becomes more common. Even today, there is a huge chilling effect on movie making because images in the background can cause copyright infringement. In the past there were cases where the Japanese courts ruled that images in backgrounds were OK, but no more. Anything in the background is still a copyright infringement. This will be a huge chilling effect on sharing home movies and home photos. The Japanese law does not allow intent to play any role in defining whether images in the background are an infringement. ''

I though that this was very interesting as well, because it's interesting to think about how different countries are and how that effects the types of problems that should be solved and their solutions...

``I asked about the likelihood Japan would be supportive of Creative Commons. Although everyone liked the idea, they said that there are very few copyright related lawsuits in Japan and frankly, there probably wasn't as strong a need in Japan and we might have difficultly convincing people of the need initially.''

What an Unfortunate Profession from the ErosBlog.#

Joi Ito says this about Kevin Marks -#

``Kevin Marks, of MediAgora fame and a regular in #joiito is one of the most helpful and interesting people I've met recently. A lot of his job involved compiling huge pieces of code on slow machines so he would hang out and help people on #joiito. I feel a bit guilty because I think people on #joiito were a bit demanding of his time, myself included. I remember asking him to take care of my nephew and niece over iChat at 4 am in California while I did some cooking.''

Baby sitting over iChat? That's very interesting.

John gives advice to job seekers...#

``If you're looking to get a job, follow these steps:

1. Apply for lots of jobs
2. Ask for an in-person interview if you get a phone interview
3. Ask for an offer at the in-person interview
4. Get as many offers as you can, then pick the job you want.

Via John is a quote from Chuqui about Apple's market share...#

``No other market handles market share data this simply (or unrealistically). You don't declare Jaguar a failure because its unit sales are small compared to Buick. You don't build market share numbers by counting how many cars, farm tractors and vespa scooters get sold in one year, either. Except in computers.

But hey, you know what? if being with the "market share leader" is what's important, then enjoy McDonalds and Burger King. Me, I had a wonderful piece of salmon last night at this place called Gardinos. It must be an absolute failure, it's tiny, only about 30 tables, and just like Apple, it's obviously been right on the edge of failure for the last twelve years because of its tiny market share and higher prices...''

From Little. Yellow. Different -#

``Mozilla has its nice parts: in particular, the ability to block all pop-up windows and tabbed browsing (so you don't have 15 web browser windows on your desktop) but what had turned me off the most from the browser was the speed. I could click on the Mozilla icon, walk outside, give birth to a couple of babies, come back and the browser would still be loading.''

Brian Hess has a quote from a movie on his blog.#

``Luther Fox: I'd spent years trying to pleasure women. He'd come to the conclusion that what's important is knowing how to please only one. Now there's something to write about.''